TexMessage: EPA boss says don’t blame her for skyrocketing gas prices

Good morning, TexMessagers! We officially have our first Texan exploring a presidential campaign.

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TEXclusive

Now that Ron Paul has displayed the guts to enter the 2012 presidential race, we’re wondering if Donald Trump will chicken out rather than debate against Texas’ favorite-son libertarian.

These last couple of months have given us a preview of what could be an entertaining campaign match-up between the Lake Jackson congressman and the billionaire developer/reality show host. Remember Trump telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that Paul could never get elected president? Or Paul retorting that Trump had never gotten elected to anything? Or Trump trumpeting his probe into President Obama’s birth status? Or Paul saying he’d like to see Trump’s birth certificate?

A contest involving the colorful, made-for-TV pair would make for interesting infotainment. “An argument between them would be a ‘Jerry Springer’ moment,” political scientist John J. Pitney Jr. told our colleague Sarah Tung. Pitney, who teaches at Claremont McKenna College, considers Paul a longshot to win the GOP nomination but adds, “Trump has even less chance of becoming president than Ron Paul.”

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Texas Tips

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? PAUL FOR PRESIDENT. That’s not an endorsement; it’s a news update. In possibly the worst kept secret of 2011, Rep. Ron Paul has finally announced he is launching a 2012 presidential exploratory committee. On Monday Paul appeared on both the Colbert Report and Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, where he hinted at a presidential announcement. Then, on Tuesday Paul made a stop in Des Moines to make the announcement and introduce his Iowa leadership team. Read more>>> ? PUNDITS BELIEVE RON PAUL WILL DO BETTER IN ’12. Bloggers at The Caucus‘ panel of experts predicts Ron Paul 2012 will perform better than Ron Paul 2008 due to a higher national profile and a well-organized base of loyal backers. “Ron Paul finds himself right in the epicenter of the three or four or five the most critical and controversial issues in our nation today. The spending. The war. The financial crisis,” said Drew Ivers, a member of the state central committee of Iowa’s Republican party and Paul supporter. “That’s how snowballs develop, you know. They start small, and they get bigger as they roll downhill.” >>> Reader poll: Which “RP” do you think would make the best president? Ron Paul? Rick Perry? Rand Paul? Rob Portman? VOTE>>> ? DON’T BLAME US FOR GAS PRICES. Environmental Protection Agency director Lisa Jackson wants you to know that she and her agency are not to blame for rising gasoline prices. No, she said, if you want to point a finger, you should point it at the U.S. for our dependence on imported oil. “The standards that we set to protect our health are so often and so inaccurately blamed for increasing prices and economic challenges that I want to make clear that that’s not what is happening right now,” she told a conference hosted by the Energy Information Administration. More from PoliticoPro>>> ? HUTCHISON’S FORMER CAMPAIGN WEB GURU IN HOT WATER. The CEO of Election Mall, Ravi Singh, who sold campaign technology to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign in 2009, is again causing controversy. Singh has been telling people he was the key to President Obama’s internet campaign in 2008. The only problem is he never worked for Obama. Singh was fired from the Hutchison campaign in 2009 after a reporter with the Austin-American Statesman found 2,200 hidden phrases on a campaign site including “Rick Perry gay.” Read more from PoliTex>>> ? DRONE, BABY, DRONE. Rep. Michael McCaul will go with Rep. Henry Cuellar and Rep. Blake Farenthold today to assess the Unmanned Aerial Systems operations at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station and call for the Obama administration to increase resources in Texas to help secure the southwest border. According to Political Pulse the representatives will be on hand to watch the Guardian, an aerial vehicle that helps with border surveillance, land before sunrise.

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? @JudgeTedPoe According to the Houston Chronicle, out of the Houston Delegation, I was the lead sponsor of the highest number of successful proposals.